Scientists Who Fund Themselves Even in today's w d r ~ of mukibillion-dollar grant programs, a few researchers fund some of their own

work--sometimes out of necessity, sometimes for the pleasure of avoiding the hassles of grantsmanship

Tired of writing, rewriting, and resubmit- moreoftheexpensesoftheirremxch,n hemp. life is like outside the traditional granting t h g grant proposa1,and then seeing your Still, seg-funding remains relatively rare, structure. They are a diverse lot. Some are university take a huge cut when you M y and it isn't even an option for r d e r s in angry that they are driven to self-funding as get M e d ? Fed up with spendingrhe bulk of some fields: It's hard to pay your own way if a last resort. Others share a giddy enthusi- your time raising money for your research your research requires a $500 million space- asm for clonducting experiments on their instead of running your lab? Take heart from c e for example. And there are downsides own terms and revel in the joy of sidestep- one well-kndwn California chemist: There to the practice for those who can afford it. ping the time-gob%, lcgicdefymg, dignity- may be a way out. But it's not for everyone. "You certainly don't want anyone to know drauringgmmmamhip process. To apermn,

Fifteen years ago, this researcher, then in you're doing this," laughs Mirni Koehl, a ma- they have interesting tales to tell about why his late 40s, considered dropping out of sci- rine biologist at the University of C a l h - they have financed their own research, the ence. "I was always well fumted," says the nia, Berkeley, who has always funded some freedom k has bought them, and the limita- researcher, who wkd h t his m e not be of her own work, and has recently been r ims of this iconoclastic work style. used. "I just dislikdtheprocessvery much. It using money she won from a MacArthur fmally reached the point, sort of my midlife crish wh& I realized I wa I' tigators were a com- spending 60 hours a week in the lab, World War 11, when and spending less than 15 doing what I for scientific re- wanted to do." Then he slyly grins as he tells the st+ of how he escaped from the grind that has become mod- em science: He decided to use his mod- est savings to play stock markets around the world. Now, he runs a sprawling lab at a majm resemch university, and he funds most af +e work himself. He no longer engages in what he calls the "lie" of the granting process. "I do sci- ence h d i n g , disdain for the process ence because I emjoy doing science ... I has grown. "The peer-review system don't want to be forced to justify what itrn doing because it makes better air in Generous environment. John Momll

(above) helps support his lab and stu- submarines, or whatever," he says. dents at the University of South Florida your Own way m y with money he earns as an environ-

like an extreme way to avoid the hassles mental consultant; ~obert Summers of of gcantsmanship, but a surprisingnum- SUNY Buffalo (w) uses his own ber of scientists dip into their own re- funds to supplement g- to the sources to fund at least p m of their developmental b w o f m urchins.

research. For some, family wealth pro- mosity toward the system is vides a measure of freedom; others channel "glenius" award. "You sound key to understandmg what consulting income into their labs; and some like you're a failure if yau leads many researchers to use part of their darks, pemisa, and other d d t have a major gretnt for use their own money for personal income to pay for their science. A ream-& you're doing." chemicals, a plane ticket few pay their entire way, bat most kick in Some wealthy research- to a field site, or a tech- fundstokeeptheirlabsgoing6e~w~grants e r s , & t h e ~ b - nician's salary. 'The grant or to fund unorthodox ideas or areas of re- ist, shy away from publicity business has been the tail search that have gone out of scientific fash- because they do not want to that wags the dog," says ion. "There are a lot of investigators out there advertise that they have i t bank accounts. Steven Vogel a &-hded Duke University who dig into their own pockets," says John Still others do not want to remind their mi- researcher who studies biological fluid me- Morrill, a self-funded developmental biolo- versicies that they are not bringing in the chanics. "[Self-fundingl is the path of least gist at the New College of the University of precious dollan f a overhead that came with rsktance, How do you maximize the science South Florida in Sarasota. Robert Summers grants. Ad the freedom bought with self- you want to do in the time you have to do it?" of the Stare University ofNew York (SUM), funding carries a hidden price: it bypwes the As withmany self-funded&% Sum- Buffalo, a collaborator of orrill's who also critical peer review of ideas that is built into mers is not wealthy and would rather win FI taps his own funds to pay for his e x p q ~ t s , the d i t i o n a l granting process. grants than spend his own money. But suggests that shrinking tesearkh ddlars are Over the past few months, Science has about 10 years ago, he started dipping iyto making the practice more common. "I think mught out this small fraction d scientists his cookie jar to help pay for his research. "I more and more people are eating more and who pay their own way for a glimpse of what just realized that if I wanted to continue,

178 . SCIENCE VOI, 279 9 JANUARY 1998 m.sciencemag.org

'Gentlemen of Science'

I'd have to beg, borrow, steal, and s c r a p e and spend my own money," says Summers, who estimates he shelled out $10,000 on his research last year alone.

Summers, who studies the developmental biology of sea urchins and other inverte- brates-and currentlv has two mants-savs

W h e n modern science began taking shape in the 17th cen- supported their own research. "A lot of research was done by tury, it was largely a hobby of the rich, the so-called natural doctors [through] income from their practice," says Charles philosophers or "gentlemen of science." Although many of Rosenbeq, a science historian at the University of Pennsylvania them had patrons in the form of individuals, scientific societ- in Philadelphia. ''The amounts of money involved were so small." ies, or museums, some used In the first half of the their own money to fund A d e t w m of science- Henry 20th century, some entire their investigations. "Ariito- Cavendish (below), son of the fields were krgely funded by crats funded their own re- Duke of Devonshire. and l3obeI.t

themselves. "In search the same way they the old days, most of the funded their art, their estates, oceanography would be and their horses," explains sci- done by people who owned ence historian Arnold Thack- yachts and needed some- eray, president of the Cherni- thing to do," says Walter cal Heritage Society in Phila- Munk, a preeminent phy- delphia, Pennsylvania, and m- sical oceanographer at author of Genthen of Science. the Scripps Institution of "An interest in science was no Oceanography in La Jolla, different from any other art. California. "It used to be You were exactly an artist. The very, very common in my thing that's extraordinary is field!' One of the most fa- that the state has taken on mous examples of a self- support of science, and it's still an aberration. The sciences funded oceanographer was are the anomalous art!' Prince Albert I of Monaco,

For many years, some of the most prominent scientists of who in 1910 opened the the day had links to royalty-and the money that came with still-standing Ouzwgaph- the title. One prominent self-funder of the 17th century was -- ic Museum there. Robert Boyle, the son of the fist Earl ofCork, whose studies of .A ,. w m Self-funded amateur sci- the behavior of gases led to a law that still wins a spot in every entists also made impor- u n e a t e chernisny textbook. Another was the 18th century tant contributions in the first half of this century. Amateur physi- chemist and physicist Henry Cavendish, son of the Duke of cist Alfred Loomis, a lawyer who made millions with a company Devonshire, who made a long list of dkcmeries, including the that supplied power to the entire East Coast of the United States, properties of hydrogen and carbon dioxide in water. In the 19th ran a top-notch laboratory of his own in Tuxedo Park, New York. century, astronomer Lord Oxmantown, the third Earl of Ross, fi- "He was a very, very serious scientist," says hi grandson, William nanced a telescope that Thaclmy says was "the wonder of his day." h m i s , a researcher himself at the University of California, San

The list of famous, self-funded researchers of yore certainly is Diego. The senior Loomis went on to the Massachusetts Institute not limited to royalty. In France, the 18th century chemist ofTechnology, where he headed the Radiation Laboratory, which Antoine Lavoisier paid for hi work with money he made from a made major discoveries in radar and microwave technologies tax-collecting firm. (He also rnamed a company executive's during World War 11. Says Loomis's grandson: "He liked being daughter.) In 18th century England, William Withering of digi- called an amateur in the old-fashioned sense of the word--mnator, tali< fame and Edward Tenner, father of the smallpox vaccine, alw a lover of vience " -J.C.

he spent 6 months wdrking on &e last application he sent to the National Science Foundation (NSF), and it was rejected. "In- stead of fighting it and resubmitting, resub- mitting, resubmitting, I have a personal policy: I won't resubmit anything," says Summers. "But I'm not going to be counted out. I take so much pleasure from my research. It's the most gratifying part of my career!'

Harry Greene, a Berkeley zoologist who investigates the behavioral ecology of snakes, ran into similar problems winning grants

longer in favor. "I'd submit a pro- : posal to the panel that came clos- est to my subareas, and I'd get worse and worse reviews," says

? Greene, who speciglizes in rattle- 2 snakes. "Meantime, I'm doing re-

1 2 search out of my pocket." He says 5 he has since spent "a fair amount t of money on radio transmitters and gas and plane tickets." Greene says

a he doesn't regret having funded his own work. Still, he says, "I do

- --- . resent the fact that I can't get Manageable MII. Duke University's Steven Vogel uses his funding. MY research is relatively salary to fund his relatively inexpensive research on bio- cheap and profoundly important" logical fluid mechanics. Berkeley's Koehl, who studies

the physics of how organisms in- from NSF about 15 years ago. The reason, he teract with the fluids around them, says inter- says, is that whole-organism biology is no disciplinary work like thii often "falls between

www.xiencemag.org SCIENCE VOL. 279 9 JANUARY 1998

the cracks" of what funding agencies support: grants more of a chal- book on oxidative phos- "If your work does not match the mission of lenge, so will growing phorylation, inherited any study sections at a granting agency, then older and not adopting money from his family's you are out of luck." Koehl began to fund sexy new techniques. "I lucrative construction 3 some of her own work in the 1970s, when she was essentially forced to business and used it to 8 was starting her postdoctoral studies on the start funding myself about fund not only his own $ ~ h ~ s i c a l mechanisms that organisms use to a year ago," says Lionel work but that of a half- filter things out of water. "I was hopelessly Jaffe of Massachusetts's dozen other researchers nalve about how to get grants when I got out Woods Hole Oceano- as well. Mitchell, who % of grad school," she says. Not knowing how graphic Institution, who died in 1992, even went 8 to sell a proposal on that subject, she used her studies embryo develop- so far as to convert an old $ savings account. Later, as an assistant profes- ment. "The problem is, mansion in Cornwall, 5 sor, Koehl continued funding herself. "For almost everybody is in- d Glynn House, into a re- 5 several years, I used my salary to fund my terested in molecular ge- search institute. "I think work and lived like a student," she says. "Two netics. Very, very few are he would have found it things drove me: I wanted to succeed, and I interested in physiology, difficult to have gotten 3 was really curious about things." and I know it's just as im- funding because his ideas r

Koehl has received many grants over the portant as molecular ge- were rather radical," says years and, she notes, has benefited greatly netics. It means I'm very University College Lon- 8 from the equipment freely available to her at much alone, and it's very E~hewing the granb snakepit. uc don's Peter Rich, who 5 Berkeley. But she still pays for some of her difficult to get funding." Berkeley's Harry Greene is funding worked at the Glynn own work with money from the MacArthur Jaffe, 70, is none too some of his research on the behavioral Research Institute for award she won in 1990. "I use that money to pleased by the situation. -logy Of raMesnakesbecause sup- 12 years and ended up fund more innovative or exploratory stud- "These are the worst biology from

traditional funding agencies is scarce. running it. (Last year, be- 3 ies," says Koehl. times I've encountered in cause of money troubles, r

Biophysicist Arthur Winfree, another 50 years," he says. "I have a postdoc and one Rich moved the institute to University Col- MacArthur fellow, also started paying some tech I'm supporting through my own funds. It lege London and sold Glynn House.) of his own research costs when he was a post- is difficult. I am not a wealthy man. But there Chemist Luis Leloir, who won the Nobel doc. Although he says he has been "lavishly didn't seem to be any alternative." Prize in 1970 for discovering sugar nucleotides funded" over his entire career, he has had a A point stressed by Greene, Koehl, Sum- and elucidating how they build carbohydrates, hard time getting support for research that mers, and several other self-funders is that ex- spent much of his own money supporting the runs counter to prevailing trends, such as his perimental science is not always exorbitantly research institute he headed, the Institute for recent focus on sudden death from heart at- expensive. The studies into biological fluid me- Biochemical Research, in Buenos Aires, Ar- tacks. "I've wanted to pursue things I can't chanics of Duke's Vogel, who funds all his own gentina. Leloir, who died in 1987, "was a very get funding for," says Winfree. "I've tried to work, dramatically make &IS point. "If I had rich man," explains Luis Quesada-Allue, a run against the grain of well-established $1000 a year to spend on research, I'd be in graduate student of Leloir's. "He was able to thought in physiology." Specifically, Winfree clover," says Vogel. "I ask questions like, How maintain for many years the library, mostly is attempting to use his knowledge of how do leaves on trees respond to wind? My ex- journals, of this institute. He was also able to waves of color move through chemically ex- penses can be two rolls of film." Vogel adds, fill any gap in the financing of lab require- citable media to understand the correspond- however, that because he doesn't get grants, he ments, using his own cash. I believe that prob- ing electrical waves in heart muscles, which also does not get a summer salary, which he ably many times, he silently covered many are responsible for sudden death. says could boost his income by as much as <holes' in budgets of the institute as a whole

Winfree started a $20,000 a year. Says and [those] of other researchers." consulting company in 2 Vogel: "In that context, Invertebrate zoologist Stephen Wain- 1980-the Institute for 5 those of us who have de- wight of Duke used money he inherited Natural Philosophy, a cided not to get into the from his family-which owned a prominent name that nods to 19th funding game have done company that made bicycle and motorcycle F century science-so he 5 SO with some sacrifice." chains-to start his own foundation to fund

3 could become indepen- scientific work. Named after the first coral dent of the grant system. Sharing the wealth reef that Charles Darwin found on his H.M.S. "I thought I'd better find For some fortunate re- Beagle voyage, the Cocos Foundation oper- out how to survive on my searchers, self-funding ated until Wainwright's money ran out a own," says Winfree. The isn't a matter of scraping few years ago. Along the way, Wainwright institute had pulled in together a few dollars from funded his own lab, colleagues (who refused $70,000 for his research pensions and savings ac- to take money from him directly), graduate by the time he closed it counts. Some of the most students, and scientific meetings. down in 1988. (He won ambitiowand most ac- Asked how he began to fund his own work, a $200,000 MacArthur complished-self-funded Wainwright jokes, "By carefully selecting my award in 1984, invested it researchers in modem parents." While still in graduate school, he told all. and holds it in reserve times have . had the hi father he had avvlied for an NSF fellowshiv. against a rainy day.) luxury of being bom into "He questioned 4; more closely than he ever

Built his own institub. British Nobelist wealthy families. Just as working in an Peter M i ie l l inherited money from his had on anything,"recalls Wainwright. "He said obscure field or positing ftimilvs construction business and wed The United King- [to] leave the money forthe people whoneed it. hypotheses that go against it to fund not only his wok but that dom's Peter Mitchell, a I've definitely been guided by that." dogma will make winning of a halfdozen other reseamhers as well. Nobelist who rewrote the Other independently wealthy researchers

SCIENCE VOL. 279 9 JANUARY 1998 www.sciencemag.org

have been mainstream I I was willing to knock Morrill. He notes that spending his own grant recipients, but have I ! on those doors for 3 or money, which universities typically view as a used their own money to $ 4 years they would have donation, also gives him more bang for his supplement their work. opened up, but it didn't bucks than a grant would: "I get 100% return The University of Penn- make sense to wait. The on money because they don't charge me over- sylvania's B r i m Chance, 5 opportunity was there." head." Madey calculates that his $140,000 in- for example, heir to the "If you accumulate vestment to develop his free electron laser had Chance Vought airplane more money than you the effect of $250,000 in grants. company (which made g need, it's very reasonable But this last point highlights one of the a famous World War I1 to spend it on something main limits to self-funding: Universities de- plane), says staffers at - .II/ useful for mankind," adds pend on overhead money from grants. "Eight the National Institutes organic chemist Derek or 10 years ago, I was told I'd have to bring in of Health joke that they Barton of Texas A&M overhead money," says Berkeley's Greene. have a name for people b5 < Universityincollegesta- "I'm lucky to be at Berkeley because natural who receive too many of & tion. Barton, who won history is important here," he says, but he their grants: BC, hi ini- the Nobel Prize in 1969 believes his self-funding has hampered his tials. But Chance, a bio- C and is now 79 years old, career advancement: "I've probably been pro- physicist, also has liber- 9 says he uses his own moted more slowly." Orher self-funded re- ally tapped his own money primarily to hire searchers, who did not want to be named, say funds when he believed Family foundation. Zoologist Stephen more students to work they have had their labs shut down because his work was promising Wainwright of Duke University used in his lab, but he would they didn't bring in overhead dollars. but too innovative to money he inherited from his family to not spend it on equip- Researchers who either choose or are make it through the SfEVfa fo~*fionfO fund scientific work. ment. "If you support a forced to work without grants pay other conservative peer-review student he'll be grate- costs, too. "One of the problems is you lose process. He gives the example of a cryo- ful," says Barton. "If you support a piece of external validation," says Nobelist Joshua genic magnet, used for medical diagnosis, equipment, it has no soul." Lederberg of Rockefeller University in New that he and George Radda of Oxford Uni- York City. "That can be as important as the versity developed. Chance says he "plunked Pluses and minuses money." Another drawback, says Berkeley's down 80 kilobucks" of his own money to Ask any self-funded scientist what is the Koehl, who regularly wins grants, is that the help build the machine. "If you really love chief benefit of bypassing the traditional grant process can help shape a research research and have a societal impulse and granting process, and the most likely an- project positively. "Workingout the techni- realize this technology could help people, swer will be the freedom to pursue dogma- cal details for proposals and getting feedback you go for it," he says challenging, creative work that conserva- are useful exercises," she says.

Although he's not wealthy, the Univer- tive peers reviewing a grant application And self-funding is not always best for sity of South Florida's Morrill has donated would shun. Self-funded researchers can one's pride. One independently wealthy re- a significant chunk of his income to fund also roam over different scientific disci- searcher who has occasionally used his own his lab: For nearly 30 years, he has plowed plines without having to prove their cre- funds to support hi lab asked not to be named $15,000 to $20,000 a year in earnings from dentials first. Their students often have because he said he wouldn't want any of hi consulting into his research. Morrill says the luxury of working on a wide range of relatives to get the wrong impression. "I could he decided to spend his own money on the projects. And, glory of glories, for every have gone into my father's business," he ex- lab after he took his first environmental grant application they don't write, they plains. "I liked the idea that if I succeeded in consulting job for a local developer in 1968. have more time to do their research. science, it was my own doing." And Stanford "I'd been on the sidelines watching people University immunologist Irving be environmental consultants, and they'd 2 Weissman doesn't brag about the lost the respect of their scientific colleagues," $ fact that he has helped his lab sur- says Morrill. "I vowed then and there to 2 vive while waiting for a new grant. use this money for professional purposes." 1 "I do it when we go over budget," In addition to keeping his lab afloat, Mor- he says. "You do it so you don't lose rill's generosity has sent many an under- S people. You're kind of embarrassed graduate to a scientific conference or an L that you don't have money from exotic field site, or bought luxuries such as any other sources. I don't do it out canoes (needed for gathering samples) and of any great desire!' extra journals. "I've always figured my sal- The California chemist who ary should be enough to take care of me," first saw the light 15 years ago has says Morrill. no such qualms. "The main thing I

Duke physicist John Madey has also in- just find fascinating is I do know a vested substantial amounts of outside in- fair number of scientists who have come into his research. He spent $100,000 A leg up for scbnce. The University of Pennsylvania's Britton the means to at least partially sup- he had made in royalties from the free elec- Chance, whose family owned the Chance VougM airplane port themselves who don't do it," tron laser-plus $40,000 or so from savings -PanY* has tapped his - funds to work-* as he says. "That's the intriguing thing and stocks-on the development of a lower qOgenic mqne- he believes innovative to to me. Why don't they? What's the powered device that could be used for surgery

make it through the conservative peer-review process. barrier to doing it? If you really love and other applications. "There just wasn't There are less obvious side benefits, too. the science, why not put part of what you have the interest [from funding agencies]," says "Anytime I don't apply for an NSF grant, it into allowing it to be even more fun?" Madey. "It was viewed as blue sky. Maybe if allows for a younger person to get one," offers -Jon Cohen

www.sciencemag.org SCIENCE VOL. 279 9 JANUARY 1998 181